[GNC-dev] OARS classification of gnucash

Wm wm_o_o_o at yahoo.co.uk
Fri Aug 23 10:22:43 EDT 2019


On 22/08/2019 19:33, Geert Janssens wrote:
> Op donderdag 22 augustus 2019 19:50:38 CEST schreef John Ralls:
>>> On Aug 22, 2019, at 10:00 AM, Geert Janssens <geert.gnucash at kobaltwit.be>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Gnome and Flathub use age rating data to classify applications as
>>> appropriate or not for certain groups of users. Both are using the Open
>>> Age Rating Service (OARS) [1] for this.
>>>
>>> I went to the trouble of filling the questionnaire for gnucash and ended
>>> up
>>>
>>> with this rating:
>>>   <content_rating type="oars-1.1">
>>>   
>>>     <content_attribute id="social-info">mild</content_attribute>
>>>   
>>>   </content_rating>
>>>
>>> "social-info" may be a bit odd, but when selecting this option, I was
>>> considering the AlphaVantage API key which I presume can/will be used by
>>> Alpha Vantage to track the user.

I expect other price sources are tracking a lot more than AlphaVantage 
via F::Q, maybe we should pass the query on to the F::Q team?

>>> Does anyone have remarks/issues with this classification ? If so, please
>>> share, otherwise I'll use this for the next gnucash release.

>>> [1] https://hughsie.github.io/oars/
>>
>> I don't know that it matters much, I wouldn't really expect a 12 year old to
>> be interested in GnuCash anyway... and besides, 12 year olds know how to
>> get around most age restrictions.
>>
> Sure, it doesn't matter that much, but the OARS piqued my curiosity.

My initial reaction was similar to JohnR's, "what has this got to do 
with us?"

> Also you're probably looking for more in it than it really does. It just
> labels applications. There's no actual restricting going on.
> 
> Having said that, it is thanks to a system as OARS that users can easily know
> our application is not riddled with advertisements or trackers. For us that
> may be obvious.

That sounds right.

> We're so used to this in the open source world. Flathub (or
> the Ubuntu app store for that matter) however also ships commercial
> applications, which do have advertisements or language that's not acceptable
> in all circumstances.

Hmmmn, sourceforge.net (which is where many people get their gnc from) 
isn't exactly ad-free either.

If we don't use them will the "owned" servers stand up to demand?

>> I don't think that there's anything tracking related that the Alphavantage
>> API key gets them. They can already get the requesting IP and associate the
>> list of requested prices with it just like all of the other price sources.
>> That's not to say that GnuCash users who use price quotes or online banking
>> aren't exposed to tracking, just that it's not limited to Alphavantage.
>> It's anyway pretty minor compared to web-browser use, so I went looking for
>> Epiphany's age rating and couldn't find one.
> 
> The age rating is fairly new and still voluntary. So many applications don't
> do it yet.

I think you need to be on the weird side of political beliefs before you 
think understanding money, double entry accounting and similar stuff 
should be age-rated.  Unless you are the aging leader of an African or 
Asian despotic state ... or the elected leader of the USA.

> Further the definition of "Mild" according to the OARS is:
> "Using any online api"
> We do use online api's via Finance::Quote so that's why I selected it. How
> much tracking actually goes on we don't know. We don't have to. We only warn
> the user they may potentially be tracked.

I'm not sure where this is heading, however, thanks for raising this, Geert.

P.S. people that care are allowed to disagree :)
-- 
Wm



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